A History of Gaming Platforms: The Commodore 64

[SilverSurf]

Not directly Amiga related, but interesting information on Commodore Business Machines and the predecessor to the Amiga, the Commodore 64.

A History of Gaming Platforms: The Commodore 64

[XDelusion]

Wasn't it the Atari 8-Bit that was the predecessor of the Amiga?

[Zac67]

Actually the Amiga was initially developed without being based on anything. When C= bought the project, it eventually became the C64's successor in the home computer market. A direct legacy e.g. are the CIAs that were just changed a bit and reused (8520s can even be used as 6526s in a 64).

[Vulture]

correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't C64's most common mode for games the 200x160 and not the 320x200 one like the article says?

[Piru]

Surely you meant 160x200?

[Vulture]

yeah, that!

[Ral-Clan]

Technically speaking (if I'm not misktaken  :getmad: ), it's the C-128 that's the direct predecessor to the Amiga.  It was the last of the 8-bit Commodore line.  Even the case design was slightly modified and used for the Amiga (the Amiga 1000 closely resembled the C128D and the Amiga 500 closely resembled the C128 wedge shaped unit).

[UncleSpam]

Actually, a very nice article.

It took me back in time to the first day I got my C64, back in 1983.  Left me with a smile on my face.

I just purchased a minty SX-64, a few months ago, for nostalgia's sake!

Bogdan

[SamuraiCrow]

@vulture

Most C64 games used a text mode for their games by reprogramming the character set to be graphical tile maps.  As the authors of the C64 version of the Great Giana Sisters found out, you can actually mix high-res and multi-color characters on the same display depending on the color selection of the character.

[Kronos]

@ral-clan

But wouldn't that mean that someone had to fly the C128D back in time to father the Amiga1000  :-o

[Zac67]

echnically speaking (if I'm not misktaken  ), it's the C-128 that's the direct predecessor to the Amiga.

Of course you're right technically speaking since apart from the CIAs (which were pretty common in C= hardware) the Amiga inherited nothing from the 64 - fortunately.

But the 128 never glimpsed at gaining the popularity of the C64, the A500 was more into that as the gaming machine of its time - this I was trying to refer to. In addition, the Amiga became C='s money cow when 64 sales dried up.

[ajlwalker]

@Zac67

I've often seen people saying how unpopular the C128 was.

Relatively speaking any computer is unpopular compared to the C64.

The C128 sold over 4 million units!  That is an astonishing number.

[NorthWay]

Yes.

The hw specs of both makes that imminently clear. Clock up, go 2x wide on memory, add DMA frontends to the hw functions, and make smarter stuff and there you are.
No, it is not a straight "upgrade" but you can easily see how the same thinking lies behind both. (I've heard that much of the C= 64 crew followed Tramiel to Atari and that the ST shares a number of quirks in the VIC-II chip.)

[weirdami]

@Zac97

when 64 sales dried up.

The way I heard it, the 64 was still selling like gangbusters when they just up and stopped making them.

[amiga1260]

They stop to produce the C-64, because they can't make the chips for the 1541 cheaper. I read it in a magazine.